We continually focus our team on improving levels of customer support and service. As part of this strategy, we require all customers to be running the latest versions of Pastel Partner. As you may be aware, Pastel is innovative software and with new updates and upgrades, new features are regularly introduced which help you improve your business performance.

At Keytime, we currently support three versions of Pastel:

• Pastel Partner 2007 (v9)
• Pastel Partner 2009 (v10)
• Pastel Partner Version 11.

All customers with current support contracts are eligible for free upgrade when they are made available and we recommend that you should be running Version 11 although we are aware in some cases that some customers may wish to continue using the particular version they are running.

Any client running on prior versions of Pastel (Pastel v3, v4, v5 and v6) are requested in to get in contact with their account manager at Keytime (0161 484 3500) as we will no longer provide support or renewal authorization codes for these versions. We will also not provide data conversions and special upgrade pricing from these older versions, to the later versions.

This means that if you wish to upgrade to the latest version, you would need to purchase the new version as a completely new package, and would not have the benefit of  “trading in” your old package.

Upgrades vs Updates

Moving from one version of Pastel to another is an upgrade (e.g Partner 2009 to Partner Version 11). However, updates are a fix or an enhancement to a product and this is within the same version of the product you are running.

Current version you need to be running

Pastel Partner 2007 (v9) – v9.35

Pastel Partner 2009 (v10) – v10.24

Pastel Partner Version 11 – v11.2.2

How to get hold of your latest version

For software upgrades and updates, please contact Support by logging a ticket here (click NEW above), and they will provide you with a download link.

Updates: If you are downloading an update, you just need to install this version and it should be working with the same licence keys you currently hold for your existing software.

Upgrades: If you are upgrading a version, please again log a ticket here to make sure you are eligible for an upgrade. We require the following information from you:

Company Name, Contact Person, Software version and Serial number.

You will find the software version and serial number of your software on clicking on Help/About from your pastel software.

Help on installing the software and upgrading your data

Installation of new software and upgrading the data is not part of your support agreement with us. However, we understand that you might face problems when installing the software or running the upgrade. In this regard, our support team are available  to ease this process without any hassle.

If you would like us to run the update/upgrade for you, we are able to do this either on site at your offices, or remotely by internet connection. Rates for this are £75 per hour for remote connection or £600 per day (min. of 1 day) for onsite attention.

Lastly, we have attached a Pastel Partner comparison guide that shows the changes since Partner version 5, all the way through to version 10 (or Partner 2009).

Pastel International have not yet updated the document for changes introduced in Partner v11, so here they are: -

New Features:

• PDF Encryption, Electronic Documents changes and Foreign Currency Invoice changes
• Bank Manager:
• International Layouts
• Generic OFX, QIF and CSV Layouts
• POS Changes:  Supervisor Audit Trail, Logos for Slip Printing, Supervisor Dashboard, Drill Down on Reports, Touch Screen Interface
• Faxing

 New Modules

• Project Tracker
• NPO Language (non profit organisation)
• Bank Manager Version 2 (11.3 to be released last quarter 2011)